Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk believes Google could unveil a mobile-payment system, based on near-field communication (NFC), at Mobile World Congress this week. The conference is being held in Barcelona, Spain from February 14-17, 2011.

“We see several challenges to Google as a mobile-payment platform. Merchant acceptance is critical, and even with a well-connected merchant acquirer such as First Data or GPN, merchants are reluctant to adopt an offering that is not an industrywide standard,” Wolk wrote in a research note Feb. 14, 2011. Google declined to comment.